In the RNA world, improvements to RNA replication would permit more complex functional RNA molecules to evolve, which would in turn select for further improvements to replication in a bootstrapping process that presaged the emergence of complex cellular life and genetically encoded proteins. Only vestigial traces of the RNA world are left in modern life, but polymerase ribozymes have been...
On the path to modern protein-dominated biology, life on earth has gone through multiple stages. Yet, even before life appeared, numerous amino acids have been accessible through prebiotic chemistry. It is therefore conceivable that the chemical functionality of amino acids or even short peptides has been utilized since the earliest stages of life. Later, the emergence of DNA-encoded protein...
A major challenge in biocatalysis is the development of novel enzymes for chemical reactions beyond nature’s synthetic repertoire. A successful strategy employs artificial metalloenzymes, which are designed rationally to combine the catalytic properties of a metal cofactor with the chiral environment of a protein scaffold that provides stereoselectivity (1). These systems are genetically...
